Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Before photos

Below is a pic of the pics (I know, right?) my ortho took at my consult. I don't have lip spreaders at home, and it shows all the relevant angles, so I just thought I'd post that up:

You can see how my top arch (upper left in photo) is constricted into a "house" or "tent" shape. My canines came in ABOVE my baby canines, so they're high in my gums and stick out a bit.

My lower arch (upper right) is really constricted and bows in, making all four of my lower incisors plus my lower canines jumbled and twisted. My canines are rotated about 90 degrees. Here's a pic I took that shows the lower teeth better from the front:

The bottom consult pics show my deep overbite (90%) and I think I have maybe a 4-5 mm overjet. Also you can see some of my molars don't match up.

I have some gum recession, especially on the lower teeth, that my ortho wants to watch carefully. I think that's partly genetic (I had a graft done in front of my lower incisors for the same issue when I was in 6th grade) and partly a result of overbrushing on my part, trying to compensate for my crowded teeth by brushing really, really thoroughly.

My appointments are made as of yesterday: x-rays and impressions on January 3rd, and the braces themselves (!) two weeks later on the 17th. I have exactly 8 weeks from (US) Thanksgiving to enjoy my favorite brace-taboo foods.

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About me and my teeth

I'm a full-time medical physicist, a working mother of one, a wife, and a writer - all that you can gather from my "regular" profile. I'm also 26 years old and about to join the ~25% of orthodontic patients who are adults.

I've known I needed braces since I was 11 or 12. I vaguely remember having - and breaking - a retainer when I was in 3rd grade. I had a graft done in 6th grade to move tissue from the roof of my mouth and supplement the very low gumline on my lower incisors. I guess the next step after that was braces, but I refused.

My parents didn't have much money but they would have gone ahead with it if I had been willing. (My younger brothers later both had braces.) I think I was trying to save them the money - after all, my teeth weren't that bad, I thought. I also didn't want to mess with braces.

I made it through middle school and high school, marching band and prom, college and my wedding without braces, and I considered myself lucky. Then it became more of a stubbornness issue - I've made it this far! My teeth are fine!

A series of events over this past year, culminating in the extraction of all 4 wisdom teeth - the last barrier to braces - led me to a consult with an orthodontist. I was impressed enough with how far technology has progressed and what options I was given that after 14 years of delay I'm about to take the plunge.